201806010281917502018/C 211/141762018CJC21120180618EN01ENINFO_JUDICIAL20180307111222

Case C-176/18: Request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal Supremo (Spain) lodged on 7 March 2018 — Club de Variedades Vegetales Protegidas v Adolfo Juan Martínez Sanchís


C2112018EN1120120180307EN0014112122

Request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal Supremo (Spain) lodged on 7 March 2018 — Club de Variedades Vegetales Protegidas v Adolfo Juan Martínez Sanchís

(Case C-176/18)

2018/C 211/14Language of the case: Spanish

Referring court

Tribunal Supremo

Parties to the main proceedings

Appellant: Club de Variedades Vegetales Protegidas

Respondent: Adolfo Juan Martínez Sanchís

Questions referred

1.

When a farmer has purchased some plants belonging to a plant variety from a nursery (establishment owned by a third party) and planted them before the grant of the variety right has come into effect, in order for the subsequent activity of that farmer of collecting the successive harvests to be covered by the ius prohibendi in Article 13(2) of Regulation (EC) No 2100/94, ( 1 ) must the requirements under Article 13(3) be satisfied for Article 13(2) to be interpreted as relating to harvested material? Or must Article 13(2) be interpreted as meaning that the activity of harvesting is an act of production or reproduction of the variety which results in ‘harvested material’, whose prohibition by the holder of the plant variety does not require the conditions in Article 13(3) to be satisfied?

2.

Is an interpretation to the effect that the cumulative protection scheme covers all of the acts listed in Article 13(2) that refer to ‘harvested material’ and also the harvest itself, or that it covers only acts subsequent to the collection of that harvested material, whether the storage or marketing of that material, compatible with Article 13(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2100/94?

3.

In applying the scheme for extending the cumulative protection to ‘harvested material’, provided for in Article 13(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2100/94, in order for the first condition to be satisfied, is it necessary for the purchase of the plants to have taken place after the holder obtained Community protection for the plant variety, or [Or.10] is it sufficient that at that time the plant variety enjoyed provisional protection, as the purchase took place in the period between publication of the application and the grant of the plant variety right coming into effect?


( 1 ) Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94 of 27 July 1994 on Community plant variety rights (OJ 1994 L 227, p. 1).